How Do You Plan and Log Your Flights?

There are a ton of factors for commercial drone pilots to consider, and a plethora of tools—too many, really—to support the work they do.

What most people don’t realize about operating sUAS is that 80% of the work happens before and after the flight. That’s the sad reality of being a professional drone pilot. You’ll spend more time planning, logging, rendering and producing data than flying.

In addition to the sUAS work itself, many commercial drone operators are solopreneurs, who handle not only the work involved in planning and running their ops but also the marketing, sales, accounting, strategy, and other aspects of running a business.

This is where Flyte comes in—Flyte was created to provide commercial drone pilots with a single app they could use to manage their operations.

How Does Flyte Help?

In addition to planning, logging, and reporting support, Flyte provides full and up-to-the-minute information on digital NOTAMS/TFRs and ground hazards, as well an airspace integration through AIRMAP, which enables pilots to integrate into national airspace and communicate with ATC.

An app like Flyte can streamline a big chunk of the non-flying part of your commercial drone operation by helping you:

Conduct airspace research. Need to know if you’re flying in controlled or uncontrolled airspace? If there are any other hazards or special airspace considerations in the area? You sure do.

Capture / save / send that research. Check out the map below. See the alert and caution icons? And how you can create custom marks on the map? You can save all of that research as well. This is particularly helpful to send to a client or other crew members ahead of time. Good for demonstrating professionalism.

Flyte Airspace Alerts and Icons

Work offline and in-field. Flyte is good for using at home, but you can also use it in the field, before and after flying, to ensure you’re always equipped with the info and resources needed for strong situational awareness and in-the-moment logging.

Log your flights, batteries, and aircraft. Even if you’re not a certified sUAS operator, you should be mindful of logging your battery usage and aircraft maintenance schedule. That’s just…taking care of your stuff. Not to mention the safety considerations.

Flyte Dashboard

Flyte was built for both individual operators and teams, and their packages go all the way up to enterprise level for large operations. Their platform enables management of multiple pilots, drones, risk assessment / documentation to ensure the effective management and digital records of all activities.

Flight Planning

Flyte allows pilots to map their flight area ahead of time so they can see all airspace, restricted areas, and ground hazards, and plan accordingly.

Flyte Dashboard

Pilots can locate the airspace they want to map by entering a zip code or address, and even zoom down to a specific building using the satellite map (according to Flyte all satellite imagery is up-to-date, with images no older than six months at a resolution of about fifteen square meters per pixel).

Once your flight area is confirmed, the dashboard presents hazards to be considered before flying.

The location of each hazard is provided, and each one is interactive. Once the hazards are resolved, the Flight Approval button can be clicked to approve the flight. In addition, pilots can add their own notes or hazards manually.

Flyte Hazard View

If any changes are required, you can click the “Edit Flight Area” to adjust the flight area and the “Clear Map” button to start over.

Flyte Editable Fields for Hazards

Kits Management

Kits are Flyte’s way of organizing groups of hardware. The goal here is to save pilots from having to repeatedly add individual pieces of hardware into each project. Instead, kits allow you to add one single kit of grouped hardware, so you can save time when setting up operation in the app.

For example, there could be a basic kit for a DJI Phantom 4 Professional, intended for perhaps simpler operations such as roof surveys or wedding photography. Within this kit would be the drone, its associated batteries and any equipment specifically required operating that particular drone. Then there could then be a separate kit associated with a DJI Inspire II used specifically for more complicated operations.

How Can You Get Flyte for Your Drone Ops?

By summer of 2017 Flyte will be offering a mobile app that enables post-flight logging, post-flight analytics, and sharable flight plans.

As part of their community sponsorship, Flyte is offering a free 30-day trial to the UAV Coach Community. Request your free 30-day trial of Flyte now for you or your company.

Check out Flyte’s roadmap to see when they will hit key milestones in developing and releasing their app:

Zacc Dukowitz

Director of Marketing

Zacc Dukowitz is the Director of Marketing for UAV Coach. A writer with professional experience in education technology and digital marketing, Zacc is passionate about reporting on the drone industry at a time when UAVs can help us live better lives. Zacc also holds the rank of nidan in Aikido, a Japanese martial art, and is a widely published fiction writer. Zacc has an MFA from the University of Florida and a BA from St. John's College. Follow @zaccdukowitz or check out zaccdukowitz.com to read his work.